Facebook has refused to cave in to demands by Christian evangelicals to create a cross “reaction” emoji.
Campaigners are particularly incensed at the lack of a Christ-related miniature symbol after a Pride flag was added to the social media giant’s pictorial lexicon last month.
Facebook introduced the rainbow-coloured reaction emoji to mark LGBT Pride month on 9 June and “celebrate love and diversity”.
But on 24 June, public figure Hikmat Hanna posted an image asking for a cross reaction emoji as well, which was then shared by evangelist Joshua Feuerstein to his two million followers.
The post has now been shared over 9,500 times and gathered over 28,000 “reactions” – including over 3,000 rainbow flags. Over time, more Christians have come up to support the appeal.
A Facebook spokesman later told the Huffington Post: “This reaction is not actually available on Facebook, and is not something we’re working on.”
With the end of June and gay pride month, Facebook has removed the rainbow emoji.
